Caution: Imagination at Work

In “Caution: Imagination at Work” read author John Dyer in the Fall 2011 issue of Flourish magazine discuss the impact of our technology on the world and on ourselves.

The allure of technology, then, is a promise that the right tools will bring about a better world. We continually tell ourselves that with technology we can take this broken world and mold it into the better one that we all desire. The transforming role of technology is evidenced in the way many scholars define technology. For example, Dutch engineering professor and theologian Egbert Schuurman writes, “We can say that we are talking about technology when we use tools to shape nature in the service of human ends.” David Mindell sees technology as the “constellation of tools, machinery, systems, and techniques that manipulate the natural world for human ends.”